Site area: 45.7 acres
Agreement type: Equalisation Agreement (alongside other agreements)
Local Authority: Coventry City Council Council
Promotion Agreement – Thompsons Farm, Keresley
Thompsons Farm, Keresley was formerly an agricultural small holding situated on the edge of the village of Keresley near Coventry and Howkins & Harrison were instructed to enter into agreements with developers with the aim of obtaining long term development for residential purposes on the site.
An Option Agreement was entered into with Cala Homes which subsequently lapsed and Howkins & Harrison then entered into a tender process in order to obtain a developer who would take the site forward under a Promotion Agreement or an Option Agreement.
An interview process was undertaken with potential developers and promoters and they were judged on their financial backing, local knowledge in planning terms and their track record in the area of successfully obtaining planning permission.
Lion Court Strategic Land and Bluemark Developments Limited were chosen to promote the site and they had experience in the area developing local sites, in particular in the Coventry City Council area.
A Promotion Agreement was signed in order to allow the promoter to start the process of liaising with the local planning authority with regard to their requirements under the Local Plan and in particular, to prove the site was suitable for development purposes. In order to provide a more suitable site for development purposes, Howkins & Harrison negotiated a second Promotion Agreement with a local rugby club to facilitate a joint owner approach. As both owners cooperated, a Collaboration Agreement was entered into and furthermore, both parties signed up to an Equalisation Agreement. The benefit of the Equalisation Agreement was that whilst this site would be developed as a whole, the value of the site would be assessed, and each party would obtain a proportionate value in gross terms on the site to avoid a situation where areas of open space and other Section 106 requirements would have devalued one of the owner’s sites.
Howkins & Harrison liaised with the promoter who undertook surveys and reports and in particular, highways assessments in order that the local authority were convinced that the site was properly developable.
The highways in particular on the site involved much investigation as there were many other highways considerations in the area and many other development sites.
Outline planning permission was submitted in 2019 and discussions took place with Coventry City Council in order to agree a Section 106 agreement which detailed the obligations on the developer of the site in order that they could implement the planning permission to develop the site.
Obligations within the Section 106 Agreement included the amount of affordable houses on site, education, highway, transport, university hospital and primary and secondary school contributions and many more contributions to benefit the community in general.
Promotion Agreement
In a normal Promotion Agreement, the site with outline or detailed planning permission is submitted to the open market subject to reserved matters and a purchase subject to contract is agreed.
In this case a developer expressed an interest in the site prior to it going to the market and Howkins & Harrison entered into discussions to agree a sale which progressed relatively quickly and with a developer who had the funds to proceed. This process proved successful and the sale was concluded in July 2022 and because of the involvement of Howkins & Harrison via the Promotion Agreement and the subsequent adaption in the sale process, it proceeded before the downturn in the market in the latter stages of 2022.
Howkins & Harrison oversaw the process from the site being one of potential to obtaining full planning permission and obtaining proper market value for the two landowners.
For more information, please contact Peter Bennett | peter.bennett@howkinsandharrison.co.uk
